Grand jury indicts three charged in drug case at Lexington airport

This photo released by Kentucky State Police shows 80 bricks of cocaine in luggage that federal and state officials seized at Blue Grass Airport April 21. Kentucky State Police

This photo released by Kentucky State Police shows 80 bricks of cocaine in luggage that federal and state officials seized at Blue Grass Airport April 21. Kentucky State Police

Three men accused of bringing cocaine and methamphetamine from California to Lexington via private jet were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury.

Isaac Basilio Rosas, Cedric Allen Oronce Fajardo and Robert Walter Carlson were arrested last week in Lexington. Each was indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Their arraignment is scheduled for Friday in Lexington before U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell.

A preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for Friday was canceled now that the men have been indicted.

State and federal law enforcement officers said they seized 40 pounds of meth and 80 bricks of cocaine during an investigation.

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In an affidavit filed Monday in federal court, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Michael Romagnoli said another special agent in Orlando, Fla., contacted him Thursday about a “bulk currency shipment” that would be on a private plane from California to Lexington.

The aircraft was expected to be a Hawker 800 twin-engine jet whose tail number indicated that it was registered to a company in Brookings, Ore., a small coastal town near the California line.

The meth was found in a suitcase that had been taken out of the plane that landed at Blue Grass Airport and put in the trunk of a car. The BMW was stopped and searched by Kentucky State Police after it ran a stop sign.

The 80 bricks of cocaine were found in luggage that was aboard the plane at the airport. Each brick weighed about 1 kilogram.

Such a large seizure appears to have been rare for the Lexington airport. In June 1989, police confiscated 38 pounds of marijuana that was found in a piece of luggage. In May 1997, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized a Lear jet at the airport that was suspected of being owned by international drug smugglers.